66
THE STAR IN THE WEST
and nymphs .
Thus Nature
is scouted
and
thumped
on the
nose
because
she is essential , and
man
is en
throned
in her stead
and
smacked
on
the back be
cause
he
happens to
be moral-hence
Universities
and Lunatic asylums .
In
Love , mankind
eternally verges
between
folly
and
knavery , because
man
is a non -essential being ,
and Nature
an un -moral power .
But before we enter on
the
above
idea
as demon
strated in
the
poems
of Aleister
Crowley , it will be
necessary to elucidate matters , and first to enter on
a brief description
of the
Essential
and
the
Moral ;
showing
that
man
as
usual
has
got
hold
of
“ the
muddy end
of
the
stick ; ”
that the majority
of
the
human
species
live
in
a
state
of purulent
hypocrisy
and mental indolence , and
that
the
minority
should
consider
themselves
exceptionally
fortunate
if they
save
their souls from incarceration
in
the
bolgia
of
conventional respectability .
Aleister
Crowley's
gospel of Love is the gospel of
Freedom .
As love is one of those particular
qualities
that cannot possibly
thrive
under
the
perception of
restraint ,
so
can
it only bloom
in
perfect
freedom ,
whether legalized or not ;
all
other forms are Lust
.
Nature
is
the All
-
perfect
,
she
is
existence taken
as
a
totality
,
and
everything
being
a
part
of
her
,
con
sequently
is
subject
to
her government
.
The inorganic
,
and what we choose
to
call the organic
,
are her two
greatest manifestations
.
Some consider these two
as
definitely
separate
;
others that the organic
is
but
a
higher form
of
the inorganic
;
and
others again that
both are illusions
,
and that Reality
,
as
we suppose
it
materially
to
be
,
does
not
exist
outside
our
own
minds
.
We do not intend
to
enter here
the
illusive